On 25 June, Go-Ahead Group's chief executive Keith Ludeman was interviewed by The Independent. One of my favourite quotes of the year is contained therein. The entire fifth paragraph has been reproduced to show the quote in context.
Individual MDs may have considerable power, but the chief executive is no pushover. Famed for battling the trade unions at both the Burnley & Pendle and London General bus companies in the Eighties and Nineties, Mr Ludeman's reputation is for toughness. "To get to the top you have to be aggressive and persistent," he admits ruefully. "Along the way there is wreckage, there just is. If you ask people what I was like when I took over the London bus company they would say I was fairly harsh, but then they were a lazy lot of b*****ds."
I think it would be wrong to congratulate Mr Ludeman for his candidness in this context - had he openly said it back in-the-day, and to his directors' faces, then that would be a different matter.
The interview in full can be viewed by clicking here. (GL)
